Back to the future for two communities.

Children, staff and parents were looking back into the future when residents ofBarns Green and Itchingfieldsaid farewell to a Victorian school that served pupils for more than 160 years.

In its time Itchingfield Primary School educated well over 3,500 pupils and employed eight head teachers.

Nestling on top of Fulfords Hill in Sussex countryside, the school was, according to a previous headteacher, “a perfect location in which to educate young children in an increasingly hectic world”.

People associated with the school attended a poignant closing ceremony. At the same time they were looking forward, as the last remaining split site school in West Sussex is now being replaced with a new one on one site.